U.S. Trade Rep Says It Is Time To Ensure A More Diverse Set Of Countries Is Producing Metals

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai will be a featured speaker at this week’s MSCI Annual Meeting of Members, but in a speech made last week at Washington, D.C.’s National Press Club Ambassador Tai said the United States will need to work with other countries to redesign global supply chains in order to ensure a more a diverse set of economies is producing steel, aluminum, and other goods.

As Reuters reported, Ambassador Tai said decades of trade policies focused on efficiency and low costs have led to fragile supply chains and an “unsustainable version of globalization.” Ambassador Tai argued, “Resilient supply chains are vital for greater national and economic security, but getting there requires a fundamental shift. A shift in the way we incentivize decisions about what, where, and how we produce goods and supply services.”

To illustrate how the Biden administration is working to diversify supply chains, Ambassador Tai highlighted Global Steel and Aluminum Arrangement negotiations with the European Union, which she said both countries hope will “tackle the particular challenge to our workers posed by countries that have deliberately produced more steel than they can consume, depressing world prices, and devastating our steel workers and communities.”

Read more about that agreement here. Read Ambassador Tai’s full remarks here.

In related news: a bipartisan group of 36 federal lawmakers wrote a letter last week asking the Biden administration to oppose a series of tariffs on imported tinplate steel under consideration by the International Trade Commission and U.S. Department of Commerce. The lawmakers said the levies would result in additional costs on domestic manufacturers and consumers.

PLEASE NOTE: MSCI has taken no position on these tariffs and this letter; Connecting the Dots is simply reporting this matter for its member companies’ information only. Read the letter here.